Chris, Either the links need some unfunking or the web server over at MyArtSpace seems to be perpetually down. I tried from home and at work and both cases the webserver cannot seem to respond. Am glad they interviewed you, now to read it at some point...
Yes, the site is sometimes swamped by traffic and I've noticed that the server is overwhelmed every now and again. Keep checking in, though...it should clear up before long.
Chris, Very nice to read that interview. I liked the thoughts and your ideas expressed. Of course, as I was a bit familiar with the blog, some of it seemed like a re-iteration for me (but that is my problem)… Wow, a global artist’s collective - sounds like a really good idea. I am sure there are a lot of like minded people who are truly concerned about the goings on around us… I enjoyed looking at the paintings again. I did not know you know Jerry Saltz that well. That is pretty good. Let us know your updates and ideas around the collective idea when they get formalized… I would be interested.
The concerns and questions that loom the largest for me will crop up again and again, whether in my writing or in interviews, and so no surprise that they're present in the studio also.
I wouldn't say I know Jerry Saltz very well, really. I took a couple of classes with him and I'll gladly say 'Hi' to him when I see him out and about, but that's about it. He's a generous guy, though, and undeniably enthusiastic about things going on.
I'll keep people posted on the collective; it's just gestating now.
That was a very good interview. It's nice to see you talking about your priorities directly in reference to your own work, and not refracted through your analysis of others' art. I will have to read it again later when I'm not so jet-lagged. :)
I would just quibble (after all, what else do you expect from me?) with this one line: "I contradict myself all the time. Again, this is something you're not allowed to do in the arenas of politics or science."
In politics, no, you must never change your mind - even in response to new evidence - because it's seen as weakness. That's why I hate politics. But although the most successful scientists do advance a fixed "platform" (it's necessary to advance their research agenda in the current system), I think scientists in general handle ambivalence and contradiction pretty well. We know that for so many questions, there are insufficient data to swing the worldview either way. I see the world as a field of overlapping hypotheses, any of which may be true, and all of which must be accorded respect until the votes are tallied. Sometimes I think Whitman summarized it best: "Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes." The world contains multitudes of realities, and a mind trying to grasp the world in a truly open fashion must also do so.
OK, yeah, I agree with you - in fact, I even planned to quote Whitman in the interview, but I fear I cite that line too often ;) - but I do feel many scientists (perhaps not the most successful ones) are dogmatic and unwilling to accept ambiguity. This isn't true of their experiments, which are designed to prove or disprove hypotheses (themselves often ambiguous), but certainly in terms of their embrace of accepted theory (the accepted tally, as you say). For many scientists, at least among those I know, science builds on an existing body of knowledge and the bricks in that existing structure are not to be tampered with.
The approach works well enough, but results in a rather narrow path, one in which some fringe sciences are dismissed as crazy or misguided. I think that's unfortunate...precisely because "the world contains multitudes of realities, and a mind trying to grasp the world in a truly open fashion must also do so."
Who is the Brian Sherwin guy? I went to www.myartspace.com/interviews and saw all the artists he has interviewed. He interviewed Sylvia Sleigh a few months back. Is he some journalist turned blogger? The main site looks good, I created an account.
8 comments:
Chris,
Either the links need some unfunking or the web server over at MyArtSpace seems to be perpetually down. I tried from home and at work and both cases the webserver cannot seem to respond.
Am glad they interviewed you, now to read it at some point...
Sunil:
Yes, the site is sometimes swamped by traffic and I've noticed that the server is overwhelmed every now and again. Keep checking in, though...it should clear up before long.
They probably need more bandwidth, though, too.
Chris,
Very nice to read that interview. I liked the thoughts and your ideas expressed. Of course, as I was a bit familiar with the blog, some of it seemed like a re-iteration for me (but that is my problem)…
Wow, a global artist’s collective - sounds like a really good idea. I am sure there are a lot of like minded people who are truly concerned about the goings on around us… I enjoyed looking at the paintings again. I did not know you know Jerry Saltz that well. That is pretty good.
Let us know your updates and ideas around the collective idea when they get formalized… I would be interested.
Sunil:
I don't think it's your "problem." ;)
The concerns and questions that loom the largest for me will crop up again and again, whether in my writing or in interviews, and so no surprise that they're present in the studio also.
I wouldn't say I know Jerry Saltz very well, really. I took a couple of classes with him and I'll gladly say 'Hi' to him when I see him out and about, but that's about it. He's a generous guy, though, and undeniably enthusiastic about things going on.
I'll keep people posted on the collective; it's just gestating now.
That was a very good interview. It's nice to see you talking about your priorities directly in reference to your own work, and not refracted through your analysis of others' art. I will have to read it again later when I'm not so jet-lagged. :)
I would just quibble (after all, what else do you expect from me?) with this one line: "I contradict myself all the time. Again, this is something you're not allowed to do in the arenas of politics or science."
In politics, no, you must never change your mind - even in response to new evidence - because it's seen as weakness. That's why I hate politics. But although the most successful scientists do advance a fixed "platform" (it's necessary to advance their research agenda in the current system), I think scientists in general handle ambivalence and contradiction pretty well. We know that for so many questions, there are insufficient data to swing the worldview either way. I see the world as a field of overlapping hypotheses, any of which may be true, and all of which must be accorded respect until the votes are tallied. Sometimes I think Whitman summarized it best: "Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes." The world contains multitudes of realities, and a mind trying to grasp the world in a truly open fashion must also do so.
Bioephemera:
OK, yeah, I agree with you - in fact, I even planned to quote Whitman in the interview, but I fear I cite that line too often ;) - but I do feel many scientists (perhaps not the most successful ones) are dogmatic and unwilling to accept ambiguity. This isn't true of their experiments, which are designed to prove or disprove hypotheses (themselves often ambiguous), but certainly in terms of their embrace of accepted theory (the accepted tally, as you say). For many scientists, at least among those I know, science builds on an existing body of knowledge and the bricks in that existing structure are not to be tampered with.
The approach works well enough, but results in a rather narrow path, one in which some fringe sciences are dismissed as crazy or misguided. I think that's unfortunate...precisely because "the world contains multitudes of realities, and a mind trying to grasp the world in a truly open fashion must also do so."
Who is the Brian Sherwin guy? I went to www.myartspace.com/interviews and saw all the artists he has interviewed. He interviewed Sylvia Sleigh a few months back. Is he some journalist turned blogger? The main site looks good, I created an account.
I read your interview on the Myartspace Blog. Very good read. Must be nice to be on the same page as Alex Grey!
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